Damian Lillard humiliates Jazz with a historically productive 60-point performance.

Lillard historic performance

Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers created history on Wednesday by defeating the Utah Jazz 134-124 and scoring 60 points for the fourth time in his career.

Lillard scored 60 points in just 29 shots and 10 free throw attempts, placing him in an elite group. Only two other players—James Harden in 2019 and Karl Malone in 1990—have scored 60 points or more on fewer shot attempts. Both players, however—who each made 23 free throws—scored a sizable portion of their points from the foul line.

Only one player has ever scored 60 points with fewer than 10 free throw attempts, and that player was Rick Barry in 1974, who had five. Lillard recorded the highest true shooting percentage (a statistic that measures the effectiveness of shot attempts and free throws combined) ever in a 60-point game as a result of those few opportunities (.898).

“That was incredible, man,” said Blazers coach Chauncey Billups. “You don’t get to see that very often, to be that efficient. For a guy to score 60 points and only 10 free throws and make nine of them, you’re thinking that this dude has an absurd amount of 3s. It was just incredible how efficient he was.”

Lillard made nine 3-pointers, which is tied for the second-most ever made in a game with 60 points (after his total of 11 in January 2020). His overall field-goal percentage of 72% (21 of 29) was sixth in a 60-point game.
Lillard didn’t know his 60-point performance was historic until he heard about it from the media following the game since he doesn’t usually check his phone until he leaves the arena.

“It’s the most efficient 60-point game ever, for real?” Lillard said. “That’s crazy. I didn’t know that. I’m just sitting here thinking I had a shot at the end of the shot clock from half-court toward the end that I shot. It probably would have been a little bit better. I missed a free throw. Damn.”
The early stages of the game offered little indication Lillard would enter the record books. He had just nine points in the first quarter before heating up. Lillard scored 17 points in the second quarter and was at 30 for the game when he exploded late in the third period.

Lillard scored Portland’s final 20 points of the third quarter, beginning with a layup at the 6:42 mark and scoring on 7 of 9 field goal attempts and three 3-pointers during that time. He was the third player this season, per ESPN Stats & Information analysis, to score 20 straight points for his team, and just the second to reach 50 points after three quarters. (The other was Phoenix Suns player Devin Booker.)

Unusually, Billups needed to be persuaded to keep Lillard in the game during that time.
“I thought he was tired at the end of the third and he was so hot,” Billups said. “I came into the timeout and I said, ‘How are you feeling? I really wanted to get you out here for the last two minutes.’ GP (Gary Payton II) and everybody were like, ‘No, let him go!’ I said, man, this could be a good game at the end. I don’t want to have him tired because he got 45, 50. He said, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ I’ve got to trust guys in those moments.”

Despite Lillard’s heroics, the Jazz were able to stay in the game, which allowed Lillard to come back and get close to his career-high of 62 points. With 1:37 left, he made a pair of free throws to reach 60 for the fourth time in his career, but the Blazers’ following two possessions saw them without a shot attempt. Billups then informed him of the risks involved.

“That’s the only reason I kept him in the game,” Billups said. “I would have got him out. I told him when I pulled him over, I said, ‘Bro, what are you doing?’ We’re running the same play. I’m trying to get you your career high. He looked at me and said, ‘OK, I’ll get it.’ Bro, I would have got you out and got you the standing O you deserved. That just speaks to who he is. He wasn’t even thinking about that.”

Before Utah could double-team him on the next Portland trip downcourt, Lillard attempted a long 3-pointer, but it missed. When the Blazers regained possession with just a few seconds remaining, Lillard gave up the chase.
“There was still time on the clock, but I wasn’t going to be that thirsty to come back down with that much time left in the game just to get a career-high,” he explained. “I didn’t feel like that was the right thing to do, so that was how it ended.”

Lillard has the second-most points in the NBA this year, according to a tie. On January 3 against Chicago, Donovan Mitchell scored 71 points for Cleveland, and on December 27 against New York, Luka Doncic scored 60 points in overtime for Dallas.
joining Wilt Chamberlain (32), Kobe Bryant (6), James Harden, and Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to reach 60 points at least four times (4 each), Lillard has a unique opportunity to evaluate these performances because of his position. Wednesday’s game stuck out to him for its straightforwardness.

“It was pretty simple,” he said. “I don’t want to say it was easy because they had some big bodies and some long defenders out there, but I think usually I get into a groove where I’m just going without making those simple plays, that teams start to come after me sooner.
“I was kicking it ahead, I was swinging it, so it didn’t feel like they came after me until the very end. That’s why it seemed like the most simple one of all of them.”

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Lillard is now the third-oldest player to reach 60 points at the age of 32, but he still has a chance to increase that total. He was already charmed by the exclusive group he joined on Wednesday.
“I ain’t catching Wilt,” Lillard said. “That’s out. Dang, that’s cool.”